The Spanish journalist reckons if they complete a deal for Chelsea’s Belgian, with the player desperate for a summer move, there’ll be simply no need for Los Blancos to try and buy our superstar Egyptian.

“Salah is a difficult one because Real Madrid have no mention of him as a candidate to be a Galactico,” Balague told Sky Sports, cited in the Express.

“You can think there is a market in Egypt and he is a star of the Premier League – he has a lot of things to go for him – but if they get Hazard they won’t need Salah.

“It seems like they wouldn’t put that much money into Salah.

“The summer is so long and anything can happen.

“Hazard is desperate to come and [Robert] Lewandowski is desperate to come.”

Balague though said the same thing about Barcelona and Coutinho, which worries us hugely!

Before their bids became public, here’s what he had to say last summer on the chances of our Brazilian ending up with the Spanish behemoths:

“This has turned into a weekly question. His entourage is clearly working to move him to the Nou Camp. There are different reasons why Barca will not go for him,” Balague wrote for Sky Sports.

“One is the cost and the other is they think he’s a forward rather than a midfielder. And of course they are completely sorted in attack.

“They are looking for a different type of midfielder. Nobody doubts Coutinho’s quality but Barcelona don’t have the money to be getting three or four top players for their first-choice line-up.”

Of course, Barca went all out for Coutinho in 2017, eventually securing him in January for a mammoth £142m fee.

Salah though, who’s already scored 36 goals during his debut season, will cost far more than that – not that Liverpool will make him available.

A recent report in the Mail claimed we’re on the verge of offering him a mammoth £200k/week deal, which makes sense.

But to be honest, we can’t be bothered worrying too much about the summer yet. We’ve got a Champions League quarterfinal coming up – much more important.